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Spring Soup

A vegetable soup with onion, carrots, celery, peas, asparagus, and vegetable broth, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Spring Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. In a large pot, sauté the onion, carrots, and celery until softened.

  2. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the peas and asparagus, and simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  5. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Peas + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building the base flavour of the soup.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body while holding their shape during simmering.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavour and a little texture to the soup base.
Vegetable broth
Forms the liquid that carries flavour and cooks the vegetables through.
Peas
Add sweetness and a tender texture that softens gently in the hot broth.
Asparagus
Adds fresh, green flavour and tender texture when simmered briefly.

The step that matters

Simmer the peas and asparagus. Simmering for too long turns bright green vegetables dull olive and mushy. Ten minutes is enough to cook them through while keeping colour and a fresh taste.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, celery, asparagus, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, celery, asparagus, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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